UK funding fossil fuels overseas

06 July 2020

The UK government has spent nearly £4 billion pounds of UK public funding on fossil fuel infrastructure in the global south since the Paris Agreement was signed.

Daniel Willis     Ecologist Magazine     17 June 2020

Despite appearing to make climate-friendly announcements at the UK-Africa Investment Summit in January the government later revealed that 90 percent of the energy deals struck at the event were in fossil fuels. And, as the Labour MP Nadia Whittome highlighted in a session of the Environmental Audit Committee this month, the UK still plays a significant role in financing and subsidising fossil fuel projects overseas. 

Under the terms of the Paris Agreement, the UK is required to make global financial flows “consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development”. But despite this, recent analysis by Global Justice Now shows that £3.875 billion of UK public funding has supported fossil fuel projects overseas since the agreement was signed.

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Gevra opencast mine in Korba District, Chhattisgarh, India
image  Greenpeace (c) Sri Kolari